Wildfire Releaf: California Style - trees planted in Angeles National Forest - Brief Article

American Forests, Summer, 2001

Nearly 40 years after a fire scoured the Los Pinetos Ridge of Angeles National Forest, some 30 high school kids did their part to repair the damage--by planting trees.

The students, mostly 10th graders from Benjamin Franklin High School in Los Angeles, worked side-by-side with officials from furniture company IKEA to put in 950 native seedlings--coast and canyon live oaks, California walnut, big cone Douglas-fir, and more. The planting was a project of AMERICAN FORESTS' Wildfire ReLeaf campaign, which helps restore ecosystems damaged by wildfires. IKEA helped sponsor the tree planting and its southern California employees pitched in with the Angeles planting, which took place more than an hour outside Los Angeles.

These were the first trees to go in near Sand Canyon since the fire destroyed 8,000 acres of forest leaving just underbrush to grow up and cover the naked ridge. And this was the first time that most of the kids had ever seen the place--much less planted trees. "Most had never done gardening-type stuff before," said Willow Gramlich-Flores, who teaches biology at Benjamin Franklin. "Most live in apartment-style homes, so getting that chance to interact with the soil is new for them." On a cool, overcast day, the kids hauled large and small seedlings off the trucks, and used hoes, picks, and shovels to put them in. And Gramlich-Flores got into the act, too. "I'm a hands-on kinda gal," she said.

A few of the students are in Gramlich-Flores' leadership class and had experience planting trees as part of community outreach projects in neighborhoods around Los Angeles. North East Trees supported those projects and found the kids for this planting. The U.S. Forest Service provided the trees and organized the planting, along with the L.A. County Fire Department. IKEA gave the school a $1,000 donation for its effort and each student a $10 gift certificate to their stores.